REFCON - the container terminal standard

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The challenge of reefer container transportation

Storing and transporting modern reefer containers is a complex task. Containers loaded with delicate cargo ranging from fresh fruit, chilled meat and frozen shellfi sh to X-ray fi lms and blood plasma requires careful monitoring of all parameters to ensure a safe and reliable journey from producer to consumer.

The remarkable growth in container transportation, the increasing demand for cost-efficient operations, and requirements from customers, operators and authorities for improved quality have led container operators to focus on automated remote container management.

ISO10368 standardization

To address these needs, the world’s leading containershipping countries had sufficient foresight – as early as 1992 – to agree upon a standardized method of monitoring reefer containers. Known as ISO10368, this standard has since ensured that shipping lines, container terminals and other container operators can safely invest in automated remote reefer management. ISO10368 provides the framework to ensure that the solution chosen is as standardized and operational as the well-known standardized 20-foot and 40-foot containers.

REFCON – the market standard

By 2011 this solution had been installed on more than 650.000 containers and 2300 ships and terminals. A solution that keeps an eye on all reefer containers – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – and helps container operators to achieve that all-important high quality in reefer container transportation, while reducing operational cost.

Implementing an interface to a terminal planner enables the exchange of a wide variety of parameters (location, expected and actual setpoint, alarms) REFCON supports following terminal operating systems and others on request:

Terminal Manager, medium-sized Asian terminal: ”Being in a low cost country our manual inspection is inexpensive. Our daily cost is US$2.50 per reefer. With apx. 200 reefers on average, this equals an annual cost of US$182,500”

Reefer Manager, medium/large North American terminal: ”Upon installation of REFCON, we were able to reduce the amount of containers that were monitored manually by 80%. This equated over an 8 month period of savings of US$146,000 in reduced labour cost”

Managing Director, large Middle East terminal: "What was once a time consuming, multi-handed job has now become a one-man, one station operation. The establishment of this system is yet another step towards meeting our customers’ needs."